Sisi Rondina delivered big as she came through with clutch hits to power Petron to a 28-26, 25-27, 25-21, 24-26, 15-12 win over Foton in the bronze-medal match of the Philippine Superliga All-Filipino Conference last night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Rondina, reigning UAAP Most Valuable Player scored five of Petron’s last six points for the Blaze Spikers who were relegated to the consolation round of this prestigious women’s club league bankrolled by Team Rebel Sports, SOGO, Eurotel, PCSO, Cocolife, UCPB Gen, Mueller, Senoh, Asics, Bizooku and One Sport following a pair of semifinal setbacks to Cignal.

Although it wasn’t the finish they were hoping, Blaze Spikers coach Shaq Delos Santos was happy with the bronze, their lowest performance in the past three years.

“This bronze medal is still gold for us,” Delos Santos said.

“We’re very happy, we’re thankful for this, it wasn’t the ending that we would have wanted but third place is till good.”

Down, 5-9, in the fifth set, the Blaze Spikers inched to within two, 9-11, as Rondina put Petron at match point, 14-11.

Despite formally being assembled few days before the start of the tournament, the Lady Clickers hardly showed any rust as they overcame Mane ‘N Tail in four sets followed by a masterful three-set victory over Philips Gold to gain an early share of the lead.
Fatigue, however, caught them up as the Lady Clickers yielded a sorry loss to Foton, 17-25, 17-25, 17-25 in their previous game.

“We looked tired and sluggish after playing back-to-back games,” said Shopinas coach Ramil de Jesus. “Fortunately, the Lenten break will give us more time to recover. I told the girls to get enough rest and regain their energy because we will be having a tough test against Petron.”

Aside from physical conditioning, another major concern for de Jesus is the imposing presence of his former player — Marano — in the Blaze Spikers’ roster. Click to read more…

“We wanted to go for a quick win,” said Foton coach Villet Ponce-de Leon. “The longer the game goes, the more unpredictable it becomes. I told them that we have to finish it early so we can focus our attention on the semifinals where we will face Shopinas.com on Monday.”

“We relaxed in the second set,” said Delos Santos, who was part of the coaching staff when Petron tallied a clean sweep of this conference that also has Senoh, Mueller, Mikasa, Asics and Grand Sport as technical sponsors two years ago.
“We lost our composure and our rhythm in the second set. Nawala ang gigil. I’m glad we were able to bounce back in the third and fourth sets.”